Star Trek Links

Monday, February 11, 2008

Star Trek Toys Planned

AICN has posted a report from the Germany Toy Fair that includes a little information about the upcoming toy line for the Star Trek film. The major revelation is the costumes and designs are very similar to the Original Series.

Let’s start with STAR TREK. One of the toy companies had a special room filled with upcoming Star Trek toys. As a fan I look at the new JJ Abrams movie with both excitement and hesitation. I think the reboot is a good way to bring Star Trek to a new younger audience. I can’t imagine that the LEGO Star Wars kids will run hot for William Shatner as Kirk or even Scott Bakula as Archer. So in terms of survival the reboot is a good thing. But my fears were that JJ Abrams would bring too much realism in Star Trek – like the tv series Enterprise, ignoring the magical atmosphere of the original series.

Fortunately I feared too soon. In the special Star Trek room were about 50 action figures, a few phasers, playsets, Spock’s ring, Spock’s ears and the new Enterprise. The action figures were not the final versions, but you could hardly tell that they weren’t from the original tv-series but from the new movie. Kirk wore his famous yellow uniform (and black trousers), Spock his blue one (a little bit darker though) and Scotty the red one. The Leonard Nimoy Spock had a white monk-like robe, that looked like a variation on the one he wore in The Search for Spock. Highlight was Zoe Zaldana as the new Uhura. She wore the same red communication uniform, but this time the skirt was much shorter and there was much more emphasis on her breasts. In this movie she will give Seven of Nine a run for her money!

The phasers and communicators were almost the same as in TOS. Even the sounds were identical. And then… the new Enterprise. As a toy it had a great TOS feel to it. It’s a little more ‘organic’ than the original one and I think the two warp engines and the ‘bite’ taken from the central body are a little bit bigger. The floor of the new transporter room is red, by the way. Also shown was another spaceship. It resembled an octopus and could have appeared in one of the Matrix sequels. I don’t think it was Romulan.